The Egg Factory

Ahead of Ben Davis’ Stubb 12″ we interviewed the people behind the artwork and design.

Can you tell us what The Egg Factory is all about? The Egg Factory is a co-working space in an old egg packing plant in Hebden Bridge for creatives to create, learn and collaborate. We’ve got desks, screen printing and product photography equipment that our members can use by the day or by the month, loads of Yorkshire tea and all the chat. We do screen printing for local businesses and creatives and we sometimes have a fun event to break up the grey Yorkshire days! Today we’ve got a music journalist, a food charity worker, a novelist and someone who puts the hair into wax-work heads all using our desks.

When did you set it up and why? The Egg Factory opened in February 2015 after much scraping of floors, gallons of white paint and many hours plotting and dreaming! Our four founding members Amy, Katch Sue and Rachel came together as a co-operative after three years of curating pop-up shops, putting on interactive events in Hebden Bridge and enjoying being together. We wanted to work on our own creative businesses (Amy is a draw-er/printer/maker, Katch makes beautiful ceramics, Sue sews quilts and Rachel is a fine, fine artist) at the same time as doing stuff as our little collective so we looked for a space to share. When we couldn’t find anything quite right we decided to move into a massive industrial unit and share our space and resources with other people.

And where would you like it to go? Our aim is to build a sustainable business which supports the running of the space. We want to see The Egg Factory grow as a platform for creativity, collaboration and innovation, a space where our co-workers can continue to collaborate and thrive. And of course we’re always looking for new projects and collaborations for our portfolio of unusual and weird screen printing work – the more the merrier!

How did you go about designing and making the records? Amy – I love typography so when Ben asked me to come up with some ideas for the Stubb sticker I drew about a million different versions. I draw with a fine felt tip and then scan in my drawings and faff with them in Photoshop. I wanted the sticker to be colourful and fun, like the record.

Rachel: “I spent time in my studio listening to each track on repeat and sketching ideas as they came to me. I felt really inspired by the music so the ideas flowed naturally and freely. I found the tracks very distinctive and each one seemed to suggest a very different story or idea, which helped to form the images. It was a new way for me to work but one that I found really enjoyable.”

Amy – We did a bit of fettling on the computer to make the drawings the right size. I screen printed Rachel’s drawings onto the kraft card sleeves and we used gold foil for the limited edition fabric sleeves. We sewed and finished them here at The Egg – we love a bit of stitch action!

Can you tell us about your art in general Rachel? Rachel: “I draw with a stick and ink and sewing machine to create characters and creatures which are often expressing my thoughts, desires, relationships or the energy of a moment. I also have a fascination with mythology and mythical creatures often make an appearance in my work. I love the freedom of working with the stick and ink and every mark I make becomes part of the final drawing. The ink I use is quite thick and my paper is slightly textured, this means that the quality of my line often has a slightly rough and raw quality which I think fits well with my expressive drawings. My favourite thing is to have a new series of drawings to work on- the larger the scale the better!

Where can people find you if they want some of your Egg Factory magic? We’re on Victoria Road in Hebden Bridge, not too far from the station. The kettle’s always on and there’s usually biscuits so it’s always worth popping in for a look. There’s more info about us and what we do here. We’ve got some live screen printing events coming up in the summer and you can see Rachel with her stick in her hand at Hebden Bridge Open Studios in July.